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This past weekend, we had the great pleasure of playing in the guitar orchestra for the Dallas premiere of Shingo Fujii's "Concierto de Los Angeles" with William Kanengiser as the soloist. The performance took place at the University of Texas at Dallas on the concluding night of the Ninth Annual UTD International Guitar Competition and was conducted by UTD's Dr. Enric Madriguera. The composer was in residence for the entire duration of the festival, and the whole experience was inspiring and educational.

Labels: Fernand Vera, Olga Amelkina-Vera, Shingo Fujii, William Kanengiser

We had a great workshop last weekend--thank you to all of our students and audience members for making it a success! Our guest artist, Valerie Hartzell, gave an excellent polished performance on Friday night and taught a two-day masterclass for the workshop participants. Fernand presented his ideas on technique development in a class devoted to arpeggio patterns found in Villa-Lobos etudes and left hand alone slur practice. Olga shared with the students her approach to transcribing music for solo guitar. And, of course, we worked on Fernand's new ensemble arrangements--"Aire de Joropo" by Antonio Lauro and the Celtic tune "Wild Mountain Thyme." We hope to see all of you there again for the Sixth Annual Guitar Orchestra Workshop in the winter of 2011! From top to bottom: Fernand Vera and Jordan Taylor; Group of students and faculty; Cassandra Andrews; Jordan; Kithara Duo in Concert; Jordan helping Olga fix her nail before our concert; Valerie Hartzell in Concert; Guitar Orchestra rehearsal; Valerie's Masterclass: Anoosh Farvardin, Cassandra Andrews, Josh Mills, Russ Callison, Steven Fry, Tori Moss; Brett Holman; Audrey Chumley and Tori Moss; Technique class with Fernand; Kaitlyn, Tori, and Brad Newton; Valerie's MC with Kaitlyn; Tori, Cassandra, and Kaitlyn; Fernand's Technique class; Olga's Arranging class.

Labels: Fernand Vera, Guitar Orchestra Festival, Kithara Duo, Olga Amelkina-Vera, Valerie Hartzell

We are happy to announce that we will have our Fifth Annual Guitar Orchestra Workshop February 26-28, 2010 at St. Andrew United Methodist Church in Plano, TX. This weekend workshop is open to students of all ages and levels. The workshop activities will include Guitar Orchestra, Technique Class, Arranging for the Guitar Seminar, Masterclass with Guest Artist Valerie Hartzell, and faculty and student recitals. Please join us as a workshop participant, or stop by to check out the concerts. For the application and schedule of events, please click here.

Our January 2010 trip to Belarus to visit Olga's family and to play a concert at the Paskevich Palace Museum in Gomel was great fun. As always, the food was incredible, and we loved the winter weather! The last picture is with Olga's Mom.